The invention relates to an amplifier arrangement for amplifying an audio input signal into an audio output signal.
Audio amplifiers are generally used to amplify an input signal in linear fashion and to output it as an output signal, for example for a loudspeaker, with a higher amplitude than the input signal. Any audio amplifier has limitations in respect of the maximum possible output voltage or the maximum possible output current for the output signal. If the audio amplifier is taken to these limits by means of overdriving, limiters are usually used in order to reduce distortions in the output signal to a tolerable degree. In the event of overdriving of an audio amplifier that results in the maximum possible output voltage being exceeded, voltage limiters are used in order to avoid what is known as clipping in the output signal.
The document EP 230 1148 B1, which probably forms the closest prior art, discloses an audio amplifier for amplifying an input signal that has a limiter device that is designed to produce an intermediate signal on the basis of the input signal, and wherein the level of the intermediate signal is always limited on the basis of a settable maximum level such that the output signal does not exceed a maximum level regardless of the input signal.